Lance Dopestrong wrote:They're not very good fascists if they're adhering to a democratic election process to try and obtain political office. After all, a fascist in this sense is someone who obtains political office by force, and then uses more force to enforce their political will.
Methinks the use of the word here betrays an emotional rather than logical response to a political movement.
I agree. We may find things we don't like in what we call Far Right parties, but the FN, rather like UKIP, are not Nazi or Fascist. They may be racist, bigoted and xenophobic, and other bad things, but that does not in itself make them Fascist or Nazi.
Neo fascism is charecterised by ultra nationalism , populist policies, anti immigration policies and authoritarianism. The FN is a neo fascist party.
I would say any use of the word "fascism", or "nazi" for that matter, with or without the "neo" prefix, is wrong unless it is in connection with a group that wishes to remove democracy or wishes to achieve its ends through thuggery / violence. Maybe the FN can be accused of using the latter on occasion. But not so much in recent years. We can speculate endlessly whether the FN's rebranding as a clean non-antisemitic organisation is authentic or bogus. They certainly still have some unsavoury supporters. But they are not, to my knowledge, looking to establish a one party state in the way that Franco, Mussolini and Hitler did. So not Fascist in the way that the fascists defined themselves.
pwa wrote: I agree. We may find things we don't like in what we call Far Right parties, but the FN, rather like UKIP, are not Nazi or Fascist. They may be racist, bigoted and xenophobic, and other bad things, but that does not in itself make them Fascist or Nazi.
Neo fascism is charecterised by ultra nationalism , populist policies, anti immigration policies and authoritarianism. The FN is a neo fascist party.
I would say any use of the word "fascism", or "nazi" for that matter, with or without the "neo" prefix, is wrong unless it is in connection with a group that wishes to remove democracy or wishes to achieve its ends through thuggery / violence. Maybe the FN can be accused of using the latter on occasion. But not so much in recent years. We can speculate endlessly whether the FN's rebranding as a clean non-antisemitic organisation is authentic or bogus. They certainly still have some unsavoury supporters. But they are not, to my knowledge, looking to establish a one party state in the way that Franco, Mussolini and Hitler did. So not Fascist in the way that the fascists defined themselves.
We won't know if they want to establish a one party state unless they gain power and they're hardly likely to advertise the fact beforehand.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
meic wrote:On which grounds, nobody should ever vote for anybody who hasnt proven themselves by holding office without seizing power permanently.
Noooo - there's a lot of folk who would like the party they support to be permanently running things and would be happy if their party made that happen. There are many people who respecr democracy only when it goes in their favour.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
